Early Taste of Summer.

The next few days will provide an early taste of summer with temperatures much above normal both at night and during the day. Also, the humidity levels will be higher with a minimum relative humidity on the order of 45-50% during the heat of the day. These higher humidity levels are directly related to the higher dew point temperatures which will be running well into the 60s. This also keeps us from cooling much at night so that our overnight lows will be a very summer like upper 60s or lower 70s for the next few days.

As you can see from the map on the right which shows the maximum temperatures as of late this afternoon, our neighbors in western Oklahoma are once again dealing with 90s and even triple digit temperatures today and will be for the next few days as well. For us, we will not be quite as hot, but temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s are expected till along about Wednesday.

That is when our next good shot at showers and storms is expected and some of those will likely be severe. Between now and then, the combination of heat and humidity could produce an isolated storm or two, but a layer of warm, dry air aloft is providing a pretty formidable capping inversion. Thus, the chances will be less than 20% until the next storm system approaches. See the morning blog for more on that.

Gusty southerly winds will provide some pretty good ventilation from the heat and humidity with daytime winds on the order of 15-25 with some higher gusts and 10-15 mph during the overnight hours. Once the next system arrives, northerly winds and a return to more seasonal temperatures should prevail for several days. There are some timing differences regarding just when that will occur and not a lot of consistency with the longer range guidance. For that reason, will hold on to at least a slight chance of rain through Thursday and into Friday and may have to add a slight chance for Saturday as well. At least we will get a break from the heat for the latter part of the week and going into the coming weekend.

As always, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot